Posted on 10/16/2016 7:41:16 AM PDT by bobsunshine
A U.S. District Court judge issued a rare but fiery order Saturday lambasting the Florida secretary of state's response to a lawsuit filed by the Florida Democratic Party to change rules for vote-by-mail ballots to prevent thousands of them from being tossed.
Judge Mark Walker wrote that Secretary of State Ken Detzner has one week to respond to the Oct. 3 lawsuit that seeks to allow voters who cast mail-in ballots with mismatched signatures to cast an updated ballot before the Nov. 8 election.
Detzner’s lawyer contends the Department of State is not the right agency to be sued and that the case should be dismissed.
“The mischief associated with the Florida Secretary of State’s shenanigans is that, assuming he is right, it doesn’t enable the proper party to be joined, thus disenfranchising thousands,” Walker wrote. “But this isn’t a game; this Court will not allow the Florida Secretary of State — a high-level officer of the State of Florida — to take a knee and deprive Florida citizens of their most precious right.”
In the 2012 general election, 2.38 million mail-in ballots were cast, or 28 percent of the total 8.5 million ballots counted, according to state elections data.
Under state law, mail-in ballots with mismatched signatures and those without any signatures are considered illegal.
But state law allows voters who cast ballots without signatures to recast their votes in time for Election Day.
Ballots that are determined by county supervisor of elections employees to have signatures that do not match signatures on file are balled up and thrown away, without any chance for voters to recast them, Walker said.
“In short, we’re not talking about a mere inconvenience or a minor barrier to voting; we’re talking about taking as many as 23,000 ballots, crumbling them into balls, and throwing them in the trash like dirty tissue, without any opportunity to cure,” he wrote.
Walker also decided to take the case under advisement and canceled a Monday hearing scheduled to determine a ruling. He instead ordered the state Democratic Party to issue a response by Sunday night.
Walker already ruled in favor of another request by the state Democratic Party this week to extend the deadline for voter registration until Oct. 18 due to Hurricane Matthew. Gov. Rick Scott had denied the extension.
The judge found that state law may not provide Scott with the power to move voter registration due to an emergency, but the governor still should have done so in the spirit of voters’ rights, Walker ruled.
So the Judge, Appointed by Obama, wants to change state law in favor of the Democratic Law suit and against the will of the people. AND SO STARTS the destruction of the country from a rigged system. Judges changing laws versus enforcing them.
Also note the last paragraph where the Judge found that State LAW does not allow the Governor to move the registration date but he should do it anyway. What BS
PS: The AP link to this story LEFT OUT the part about State Law considering the ballots illegal and that the Governor can not change the registration deadline. Pure Media slant and bias.
Crooked Federal Judge Mark Walker is trying to rig the lection in Florida!
US has become a banana republic. This crap has gone beyond ridiculous.
Just wow
Florida again??
The Democrats found their judge.
We worry about vote fraud through corrupt balloting when instead we should be concerned with judges manipulating the election.
Too stupid to even vote? Typical dumbocrats.
The judge should be impeached, so contrary to the law is this opinion.
We are so far past any semblance of a constitutional republic these days that it just staggers the mind. Can’t even imagine what my late father would think about where we find ourselves now. He served a full 4 years in North Africa, Italy & Germany in WW 2 fighting hand-to-hand combat. Got all shot up & seen things no man should ever see....came home & would not take the disability he was offered & worked for 50 years. And here we are today....surrounded by in your face treason.
Just in time for All Hallow’s Eve so the dead can rise and vote. Like, duh, of course their signatures don’t match. It’s hard to hold a pen with skeletal fingers.
Just one more method of the massive voter fraud the left will use to try and win the election...The Socialist left know that’s the only way they can defeat the American people...
Someone may notice the similarity in handwriting if Clinton’s campaign staff had to sign every ballot they send in. Much safer for Ds to send them in unsigned.
Do you think YOU personally could sign 1000 names and have them all look unique? I couldn’t. This law must be stopped. /s
You almost wonder if the Judge was asking Gov. Scott to Break the law.
“...Oct. 3 lawsuit that seeks to allow voters who cast mail-in ballots with mismatched signatures...”
Lol, and how does THAT happen?
Banana Republic.
Tell the FED judge to go shove it.
Who decides what signatures are incorrect? A democrat operative, er, poll worker, sees a Republican vote, doesn’t like the way the ‘i’ is dotted, and crumbles it up for the trash bin. No one would ever know the vote was invalidated.
so this Judge wants to change the Law ?
Voter Fraud deprives Florida citizens of their most precious right
If the signatures don’t match, then the assumption is that those ballots were not actually cast by the voter in question. It seems that the only valid response is to ball them up and throw them away, after taking fingerprints of the ballot in an effort to match them to potential perpetrators of voter fraud.
These dastardly republicans are trying to not count ballots due to mismatched and missing signatures!!!
VOTER SUPPRESSION HASN’T EVER BEEN SO BLATANT!!
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